Dear Hank & John - 210: Chest Moose Tattoo (w/ SciShow Tangents!)

Episode Date: October 14, 2019

What's going on with microbes? What happens when an astronaut sneezes in space? Why do we have toes? Should I dress fancier? Why aren’t there drones on Mars? Do you get lighter every time you fart? What do I do about the poster I don’t understand? Why do animals live for different amounts of time? Hank Green, Ceri Riley, Stefan Chin, and Sam Schultz of SciShow Tangents join the pod to answer your Qs! Listen to SciShow Tangents! https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/scishow-tangents If you're in need of dubious advice, email us at [e-mail]. Join us for monthly livestreams and an exclusive weekly podcast at patreon.com/dearhankandjohn. Follow us on Twitter! twitter.com/dearhankandjohn Subscribe to the Nerdfighteria newsletter! https://nerdfighteria.com/nerdfighteria-newsletter

Hello and welcome to Dear Hank and John. Where is we like to think of it? Dear Tangents and Hank. It's a podcast where two brothers and sometimes four friends answer your questions, give me the device and bring you all the weeks news from both Mars and A.S.C. and then high everybody. I recently got a pumpkin but it was broken. So I had to go get a pumpkin patch. What? Was that your joke?

Yeah. The official joke of the episode. The official joke of the episode. It's Halloweeny times. It's start off as like an interesting story. I wanted to know how you do if I have broken pumpkin. So the social tangents are podcast where we talk about science things and we try to amaze each other with science facts and also beat each

other in getting science-related points. Hank bucks. It looks stupid, Hank bucks. Well, and how are you doing? Are you still in last place? Yes. Yeah. So the people who join me on SciShow Tangents are Sarri Riley. Hello. What's your tagline? I want a Pokemon shirt. Oh, that's a great tagline. It tells everybody everything they need to know about you. Yeah, including my not middle-aged man age range. Yeah, this is very, is in charge of like all editorial at Crush Course.

We're also joined by Sam Schultz. Hello, I'm a producer, a special projects producer. I believe is what I would be called. Oh, I get myself a promotion just now. You're not a producer of any of the channels in SciShow Kids Ended. At Tantin's I Am, is that a channel. You're not a producer of any of the channels on SciShow Kids ended. It's hand-tons I am not. But you take on all of our like unique projects like tangents.

Black ops. It's like your special forces. Special forces, and Stefan Chin is also here. Hi. Yes. Pretty good. Just had a lovely weekend out in the house. Great wilderness. We brought great. Wilderness.

We brought back so much bread. And stuffin' is a producer of Susho. Yeah, I, you know, make spreadsheets and stuff. And also videos. Oh yeah, I do that occasionally. At Dear Hankin' John, we get a number of different kinds of questions. And we have questions sometimes that are science questions.

People just like hit us and I'm like, I love it. I'll answer your science questions. I try to get you to help them do their homework or something. I think that they're just having interesting thoughts about the universe. I like to give them the benefit of a doubt. So we have front loaded this episode with some science questions, but we also have some normal questions. So we'll maybe more than average, we'll be our science questions, but, we want to take on and help our listeners with various things. And I can't talk about science anymore. I'm sick of it. Let's be back.

Well, because we're recording episode tomorrow. I know, but I need a break. Well, then this is it. It's your palate cleanser. So, we're going to have our first question. It comes from Steph, who asks, dear, Hank and Tangents, when I step in a puddle of mud and a bunch of microbes end up on the back of my legs, and then I go and I have a shower to wash them off,

did I just send all those microbes for the ride of their lives? Did they even notice, or are they probably still chilling on the back of my legs somewhere, suddenly concerned for the microcosmos, Steph? I am very interested to know, like, what the experience of acceleration and like G forces Yeah, at that at the microscopic level

Microscopic organisms have they can sense things, but mostly they sense things that are useful to them well entirely But we all sense things that are useful to us. Yeah, there are some that can detect gravity They can tell up from down so that they can move within But but that's pretty unusual mostly what they can tell up from down so that they can move within, but that's pretty unusual. Mostly what they can detect is oxygen concentration and light because those are the things that are necessary for their metabolism. They don't really care if they're swirling around

in the ocean, like those molecules are just sloshing all over all the time. But they're not really aware of that in the way that a human sloshing around in the ocean is. So it's just like a really quickly changing environment. It's more like this changed thus do this and that's a direct link. There's no like thought in between.

Obviously like microbes don't think. The like the way that like a plant will turn to face the sun is like this is over here and then there's sort of a direct molecular mechanism that tells them to do the next thing. So in the mud puddle, presumably, they're mud puddle-loving microbes. They're happy there, they got their nutrients, then when they splash on the back of your leg, you have different chemicals on the back of their leg, and that can either be like,

wow, what happened here? It's too... I don't like this at all. I don't like this. I'm gonna try to move away and then they squirm and do whatever, chemotaxis. Chemotaxis is moving through a chemical gradient. So I sense that there's more oxygen here than there was here, so I'll move that way. And they keep moving. And that's sort of like why microbes move

is that they're traveling down chemical gradients. There's also this idea that we're all doing that. We are just constantly all sort of traveling through a chemical gradient of our own brain chemistry. And that we're all doing that. We are constantly all traveling through a chemical gradient of our own brain chemistry. And that we don't actually make very many decisions on our own. I feel that. If you track every minute of your week and you do that week to week,

a disgusting percentage of the things that you do are just the same things that you do every week. Like there's not a lot of new. Yeah, well, no, I like showers. Yeah, like yeah, shower is like good. Food eating, I like, I like sleep. Recording, deer head, good job. Yeah, but it's like, how much of this am I choosing?

Right. Well, definitely. Have you seen my calendar? I don't know, I don't know. I don't know if that thing. So calendars are just chemicals. Yeah. Is capitalism a chemical?

I feel like that's making you do a lot of things. That's a quite a question. Yeah, this capitalism a chemical. I feel like that's making you do a lot of That's quite a question. Yeah Scytles, yeah, like capitalism is sort of our societal suit That we have to sort of function inside of our physical property. I don't really just get washed down the dang dream A little bit of a tangential question, but do you intentionally wash the back of your leg? No, yes Yes, I don't yeah,'t. I like that once a week. I probably haven't washed my like, like, calves. Yeah. That's like half of yours. But like what the water gets down there? It's soapy water too. Yeah. Like there are a few key areas that you need. But for... Yeah.

Yeah. Well. And it's like the runoff of the dirt and the grease from your hair and stuff, going down the rest of your body. And you need to own special attention for sure. Just take a washcloth and do that. That's how you want them. Do you wash up for your feet? Yeah, I wash my feet because they like,

they like have a dirty, it's too, yeah. Like I can tell they're dirty. Where's my calves? Like no matter what I do to them, they're always just like showing off. It's not like I can sniff my calves and be like, oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, my calves. I'm like your knee pit, you wash your knee pit.

That really is why you guys is knee pits right? Thank you. But you're never gonna come into contact with my knee pit. Oh yeah, I guess you're right. But someone might. Somebody is going to. So if you are next to a child that the height of your knee and you're wearing shorts, they could start knee pits.

I want them to have a slightly negative experience so that they learn not to grab my knee pit. I'm helping. This is something you need to know. I mean, sometimes I do it and I'm like, oh, that's nice. No, I'm not touching it. So thanks for answering that question for me.

Dear Hank and Tangents. No, not on the way around. Dear Tangents and Hank. Oh, okay. Dear Tangents and Hank, what happens when an astronaut sneezes in space? Do they fly across the room like in cartoons? And if the sneeze occurred in the International Space Station, how would they clean up the sneezed out fluid that is floating in the air?

Not Christa. Christa. That's a great question. That's good to know. sneezed out fluid that is floating in the air, not Christa. Christa. That's a great question. That's good to know. I mean, equal and opposite reaction, if stuff's flying out, it puts you backwards. Yeah. Does the fluid float in the space station like this little droplet?

Yeah. Oh, I mean, this seems like, like, this is the reason they don't want bread in the space. There are crums. There are little particles that end up in the air and then they can spy in your panels And then there's mold and stuff back there and then you can't clean it out Yeah, there's filters and then the more you have to change the filters that more work It is the more maintenance there is but I think that like specifically for stuff like sneezing and you know Various other reasons there might be droplets in space. There are systems to take care of the droplets I guess one I think the two try to sneeze into something that will absorb it. But the filters do this for the stuff

that doesn't get caught. And then also there are devices for capturing liquids that are traveling around. Like a little vacuum cleaner. You're waving your hand around and I imagine the butterfly net You know for when you accidentally just pee That probably happens. I suck that out. No. Yeah, if you're an astronaut. You accidentally just pee No, if you're in space though sometimes you might be like ah, oh, I float out. I don't know Because it's harder to hold it in. I don't know. You might think about how scary it is to be in space You look at the window and you're like, Oh, jeez, that's terrifying.

If you sneezed and didn't cover your mouth, would you fly backwards, but if you sneezed and the Dracula, you wouldn't fly backwards? Some. Because the, well, not all that would be captured, but yes, if it flew, you would get pushed back and then when the energy hit your hand, it would push you forward.

And so cancel each other out. If you were able to capture all of the sneeze energy, yeah. Okay. Could also be useful if you get stuck in the middle of the kettle. Then you just whip out a little emergency pepper packet and like, down yourself. Genius. Do any of you stop your sneezes? I like pinch my nose. I used to do that. And but now I feel like I train myself to sneeze more through my mouth than my nose because I was doing that. And I feel like that's bad and I'm gonna die one day. What? Like sneezes go at like a hundred miles an hour.

I'm gonna like try to redirect it. Your whole nose is gonna pop face out. Yeah. I think that if like holding in your sneezes killed you, we would hear about that more. I would be dead. Dear Tanginson Hank, why do we have toes? I understand fingers, but why toes?

They seem very odd. I can't even move them individually like I can my fingers. What do they do? Please help. Fingers and toes, Amber. You know what I do? I mean, fingers are pretty understandable. They're super used.

Yeah, yeah. We don't consciously use our toes much. I do. I'm not consciously using them to balance all the time. Right, maybe. That's sort of my thinking, but Hank seems to consciously use his toes. I use my toes consciously all the time. Do you pick up stuff with your toes?

I pick stuff up with my toes. I do. I do. Bending over is hard for me, Because my hamstrings are very tight. Whoa. I don't feel like I have good toe dexterity, but also when it feels like, oh, bending over is hard.

I'm like, I should make a point to bend over then so that I'm right. That's a good point. I should bend over. Use it or lose it. Holding a child in one arm and he's dropped his toy on the ground and he's crying and I just pick it up with my toe.

Does the fact that we can't move all of them individually for the most part mean that we're evolving them to not be there anymore? Or... I think that they are useful. And I think that there's definitely a side-to-side thing happening. So the big toe and the pinky toe and sort of the end toes,

they do independent things and need to do independent things. So you wouldn't want to just flip her out there. But maybe we could evolve like a dino foot. Three toes. Two or three toes, that's all we need. Yeah, but when you got a simple body plan, this is like a hox gene thing. We're like, they're the special genes that do layout

and it's better to just sort of rely on the same ones that say, okay, there's gonna be five things and we're gonna do it on this side and this side and not on the bottom two. And that work well enough. Yeah, it might be better to have fewer toes, but it's even better to not have to like mess with the sort of body plan more, which is why we end up with, you know, all vertebrates on land having the same body plan. Head on the top, two arms, two legs. It's wild. The bones in your hands and toes are called philanges,

which I remember from A.P. Vio. And it's just a fun word. It looks great word. You got a bunch of philanges. Hands are amazing. I like mine quite a bit. Yeah, sometimes you look at them and you're like, what beautiful, delicate, perfect little machines.

And also when you look too hard, you're like, ew. All right, dear Tangents and Hank, I am 71 years old. Perfect little machines and also when you to look too hard you're like All right dear Tangerine's and Hank I am 71 years old and even though I have lots of nice clothing I have a low interest in dressing up I generally just wear t-shirts blue jeans and a sweatshirt But when you get old and you don't dress well people try to give you money on the street I enjoy the invisibility of old age and maintain that I could wear fuzzy pink slippers And no one would notice my wife on the other hand always looks her best and dresses up very nicely.

When we go out together, it's a mismatch. She never says anything, but I sense that it bothers her. Should I join the 12-step group? What does that mean? That was a big, I feel like you don't need a 12-step group to look nice sometimes. No, but maybe each of the steps is like learning how to wear a new piece of clothing. Right, this is a kind of 12-step group that is not the traditional kind. Start with the socks and then go up from there.

How many do I have 12 pieces of clothing? No, where? Socks, sock, shoe, shoe. Oh, if you can't see it, you can see the video. You can see the video. Yeah, one sock at a time, because that could be a fashion choice. But then you throw in a watch and a couple rings.

Yeah, you can get up to. Can I count my shoe lasers? Are they clothes? Oh, maybe. If they're, in a watch and a couple rings, you can get up to, can I count my shoelaces? Are they clothes? Oh, maybe. If you use them as an accessory, I would count a shoelace if you count a watch. Boom. Shoelaces too. Your glasses too.

Glasses are also clothes. So this is the advanced steps at the end. Yeah, but that's like part of the 12. Right. When you're thinking about customization, that's where all the hidden numbers come in. Right. And also it's not just about clothes, it's also about appearance, so you could be like,

like tattoo moose tattoos. Oh, moose tattoos. Hair, powder. I thought that was one item. Moose tattoos. Eric, you need to get a moose tattoo. Everybody, not this is what the question was, what do we think about getting a tattoo in our 70s? Oh, that's perfect.

In my 30s, I'm like, I have so long to go that like, I might regret this. Yeah. But by the 70s, like, I'll either, I'll have it all figured out and then I'll know what I want. Yeah. Or if it's a mistake, there's not that much longer. Yeah. Yeah, it's like, you start regretting it in your 80s and you're like, well, sure, I regret a lot of things at this point.

Yeah. The Moose Tattoo was the lesser of the things that I've done in my life. I think in your 70s too, you can figure out where the Moose Tattoo will look the best, like where your skin is still the most taut, maybe like, I don't know, work with your wrinkles to make it a little chastmoose tattoo. Yeah, a whole chest moose tattoo. Yeah, that's not expensive. Well, Eric, I do, I completely understand going low effort on clothes.

So I like this question because I am very specific about the clothes that I wear. Just because I like to be comfortable. It's on the type of person who will buy new clothes, probably like Eric, where I will... I have a bunch of clothes that I go out and I'm like the day I buy them. I'm like, oh, this is cool. I'm going to wear this all the time. But then I wear it a couple times. It's like, this isn't very comfortable. I'm just going to wear the same outfit that I wear out and I'm like, the day I buy them, I'm like, oh, this is cool, I'm gonna wear this all the time. But then I wear it a couple times, and it's like, this isn't very comfortable.

I'm just gonna wear the same outfit that I wear every day of my life. A Rachel, my fiance, she dresses extremely nicely, and she has a million different outfits, and like three closets full of clothes, and she's always trying to get me to dress better, and she buys me stuff sometimes. And I have to wear that,

because I get yelled at if I don't. So I think my advice is to let your wife buy you some clothes. But also be sure that she buys you stuff you like because that's something we fought about all the time was like she would buy me crazy stuff or like sweaters ever just too loud for a month. So eventually I had to negotiate like, I'll wear this pattern but it has to be blue.

Yeah, a little bit of compromise on both ends. Like maybe every once in a while you dress up. But maybe you're not saying anything about it, it's fine. Yeah, you know, there's nothing wrong with being comfy every day of the week, but also it's not there only being comfy for days of the week and then like make it an effort going up to dinner one, one night. And you can look at it and be comfy too, I think? Yeah, you fancy our little tight ones.

This next question comes from Casey who asks, dear Hank and Tangents, my stepfather was watching a documentary on Mars and all of the Mars Rovers. And he was wondering why no one uses drones on Mars. Any help would be appreciated. Space drones and rovers Casey. Well, I have great news for your stepfather, Casey. They're going to use a drone on Mars. I'm asking.

I'm asking. I didn't know this. Oh, what? I don't pay attention to science and use a drone on Mars. That's coming. That's happening. I didn't know this. I don't pay attention to science and use the drone on Mars. Yeah, the Mars 2020 rover will have a drone on it. Yeah. So there's a couple of reasons why we haven't done aircraft on other planets yet. A lot can go wrong. You know, it's just easier to be like sticking around on the ground, rolling around.

You have to land them. And like the quadcopter drone thing required a lot of like miniaturization of accelerometers and and and like motors and a lot of different things had to get small and lightweight for quadcopters to be something that was commercially viable. But then you have this other problem on Mars specifically, which is that there's not much air. And so aircraft work by, you know, sort of working around air pressure. And when you have fewer molecules to push against, you can't lift yourself. So there's a vote in favor on Mars, though, as well, which is that it has like one and third of the gravity

of Earth. So you've got that is a good thing. It's easier to get off the ground because everything's significantly lighter, but it's harder because air pressure is like one percent of Earth. It's just not a lot of molecules to push against, but they've figured that out, and they've tested it in a vacuum chamber, and it does fly, and it will mostly be a proof of concept device, the one that they've got on the 2020 Rover, fingers crossed.

But it will also be there to scout ahead to see higher resolution pictures of where the Rover might go to make sure that it's not gonna run in anything that it doesn't like. Is it all that useful when you have satellites? Yeah, you can definitely get better resolution pictures from a drone than you can from a satellite. In the future, they want to do like fly over here, grab a rock that the, you know, the rover won't be able to get to and we think it's interesting and bring it back.

Yeah. Feel like, hey, look at this other rock from a farther away. I wanted to have a swarm of drones. Yeah, it would be awesome. Yeah. So they can work together to pick up rocks. It's just this little rover that's rolling around and it's got these drones taking off and going,

I don't care. It doesn't matter. You're about to sign. It's like this one of the swarm of drones. Yeah, that's pretty much how I feel. Marco asks, do your hand contangents, do you get lighter every time you fart? Good. Thanks, Marco Marco for the question.

Yeah, well, it's yes, it has to be yes. Valuing is not consequential. But they also have a man's mass. Yeah. If you fart a vacuum, if you farted pure vacuum, one big problem. Smart into your vacuum. Can you store your fart in your vacuum? You can store your fart in a jar. It's tough and as confused about how vacuums work. Like into an air compressor. Then you can store. All right. But not into a vacuum, which just scrubs it and immediately pushes it back out.

But yeah, do fart into an air compressor. Okay. And then when it comes out, there'll be some fart in there. Two. So if you get lighter, mass, it doesn't matter either. So you definitely become less massive. Mass it doesn't matter either. So you definitely become less massive. Okay, but if the fart air is the same density as the air air, then you don't get lighter. Uh, because that's like light is weight, which is the gravity pulling down on everything that is you. Right. So if you replace the fart air with a gas of equal density. So if I farted helium, I would become heavier when I farted. equal density. So if I farted helium, I would become heavier when I farted. All I know is that if I farted helium, I would become heavier when I farted.

So we fart a sulfur? Well, we fart a bunch of different stuff. So hydrogen sulfide is one of the things we fart, methane. But mostly we fart like nitrogen and oxygen because a lot of our farts are just swallowed air. Then you don't. You have more. I don't know, but I feel like there's less overall density. Like the density of your whole body has slightly gone down.

But you breathe in when you fart. So like maybe there's like a fraction of it. I don't even inhale when I fart. You know you almost. And then fart. That sounds very does it. That's not even a hot dog while you poop. Stefan stops breathing every time you fart.

Because he thinks it's gross to breathe in fart at the same time. Write it down, put it on a pillow. It's immortalized in podcast. Have you not eaten on the toilet? No I have. Just for clarity. And in the shower. I eat just ramen noodles. Oh, the messiest possible.

Why? There's so much stuff floating around in a bathroom. I don't bring anything in the bathroom. I bring like my morning breakfast just usually like a nutrition shake thing, like Kirkland's signature brand. Is this hot open or closed? Well, I like shake it as a night

but it's really fast. So you know it's wrong what open or close. Well, I like shake it as a night, put it to my mouth really fast. So you know it's wrong, like you're doing. I know that there's a probability that there's bacteria in there, but. A higher probability. But there's also bacteria all around my house. That's bacteria everywhere. Waiting in air, do you hold your breath in the bathroom?

No, I sometimes do. Only while he's farting. Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. But it's like sticky. It's like wet foods wet. So there's gonna be poopies in it. Food wet, it is true. Wetness does matter.

You should always dry your hands after washing them because if you touch wet hands to something, it's just like, oh yeah. Oh, everything sticks to that. So you can eat dry cereal in the bathroom. I'm sorry, you can't. I'm protein shakes anymore. Look, my big wet mouth is also in the bathroom. Yeah, keep it closed the whole time.

You can get hook up an IV and go on the bathroom and create a breakfast. Lord, I have done a little bit of research and methane, the average human fart, not every human fart. Some people are in gut bacteria, contains methane. And methane is more dense than air. So you do get lighter when you fart. This next question comes from Sam. Is this you? No, it's not. I got confused about it too. I thought that that that labeled that that was one for me. Sam says deer, hank, and tangents. I'm a third year college student living in the dorms. My roommate is really into heavy metal. And recently he put up a poster on a front door of The guitarist of his favorite band. I'm not really fond of the picture. I'm not in the metal

He wants to keep the picture up for the rest of the school year And I know it represents something important to him But at the same time, I don't want to come home every night to a door celebrating a guy I don't know anything about and care nothing for what would be the best compromise in the scenario pumpkins and pinkwood Sam so was you told us who this guitarist man? and care nothing for. What would be the best compromise in the scenario pumpkins and pinkwoods, Sam? So what you told us through this guitarist, man? Well, I think it's you. Like, is this a nude picture of this guitarist?

Or I think it's got clothes. It probably would have been mentioned if it was a nudy picture. But if it's metal, it could be like somebody that creepy costume. Yeah, probably creepy. You think it's like a reasonably sized picture, or a life size cardboard.

Just like, yeah, this is like a full door. Yeah, is what we've based left on the door? Yeah, that's my first thought is like, can I put up my own poster? Like something that means something to me and I'll just look at that when I come home and I. Jucks to pose it, put up a little pony, put up Harry Potter.

Yeah, if it's a big poster, it's taken up the whole door. I think you're within your rights to say, hey, it's my door too, buddy. Yeah. Get a different poster, maybe one that you know he won't like. Yeah, we have a bumper sticker here at your Hingun John that says there is a diversity of beliefs among the people who drive this car.

Because sometimes you wanna put a bumper sticker on a shared car, but you have to get the people to agree. So, somebody's gonna stick on your car, you don't agree with you have to get that during a John merch. Right. So you get that sticker, put it on the door, but ex out the thing and then write, live in a storm room.

There's a variety of opinions, heavy metal guitars, it's among the people with the storm room. There's also the inside of the door. Well, you have, and then we can see that. And people are going to pass by and think, the person in there likes myloponian metal. Maybe you don't want them to think that. Yeah, what is the question?

Is it you are not into metal and so you don't want them to think that. Yeah, what is the question? Is that you are not into metal and so you don't want to be represented by that? And do you want to represent your door that represents you? Or do you just not like looking at it? Because then you could just like, avert your eyes every time you go back to your room. Yeah. Close your eyes as you open the door. The great thing about living in a dorm room is that it's definitionally impermanent.

Yeah. If this was a lifelong commitment, you've made to this poster, then I would definitely be like, we need to have this conversation. Yeah. But if it's like two semesters. Yeah, and I think if there's nothing like fundamentally distasteful about the band being represented or something like that, if you do a little bit of research and you find out that it slipped not, just like, you got, let me like, this is not okay Everybody's up. Sarah enjoyed that joke. Yeah, I was like not as far from the worst. Yeah I'm that you could pick to put a poster up of but But all right, they just pee on things more than they did. Yeah, metal bands pee on things

I think there's a lot of peeing happening in the metal community I mean, there's a lot of peeing happening for all of us. Which reminds me that this podcast is brought to you by metal musicians peeing on things. Slipknot, Lylves to pee! This podcast is also brought to you by Sarah's toilet shake. Whatever. That's what they call it. The Kirkland toilet shake.

The toilet smoothie. God, I'll be sitting on a toilet. I also won't let they call it. The Kirkland toilet shake. Yeah. The toilet smoothie. God, I'll be sitting on the toilet. I also won't let you open it. I'll only eat it on the toilet. This podcast also brought to you by my big wet mouth, also known as the poop sponge. Come on. This podcast is also brought to you by Legwashing.

Why don't have the people in this room do it? All right. Another science't have the people in the room do it? All right. Another science question for the team. This is from Elissa who asks, dear Hank and tangents, why do humans live so much longer than dogs and why do seeds hurt us live so much longer than humans and why do animals live for different amounts of time? Memento Mori Elissa. Boy, those T-Low mirrors. Those T-Low mirrors. Is it T- telomeres? Yeah. Oh, I did it. Some people say, tell them mirrors. I've always heard telomeres.

I've always heard telomeres. Yeah. So what that? It's on DNA, right? Yeah, that's like the caps of the chromosomes. And every time the chromosomes divide, they get slightly shorter. And as they get shorter, then you get more mutations

happening in the DNA. It's a replication process that they get shorter. Like replication is part of division, but the thing specifically is like the way that the machinery clamps onto the DNA and starts creating the duplicated strand, it inherently cannot duplicate the very, very end of it because that's where like the initial protein latches on.

Oh, so you like get a slightly shorter strand every time as you go back. So I has a turtle ended up with so much better in ability to do this or whatever. There's sort of the evolutionary reason, and then there's the sort of mechanistic reason. So evolutionarily, if you basically just say you can't breed until you reach a certain age, like there's some pressure, that means like it's better for there to be a long period before something reaches sexual maturity and then a long period of sexual maturity, then you like evolutions pressures for a longer lifespan.

And there are all kinds of things that can push for a longer lifespan. So if you like took a dog and you said, we will never breed these dogs before they reach the age of 10, then over the course of many generations, the dogs would live longer. Cool. Because the ones who died early would never breed. So how do people's life expectancy goes up? No. Oh, okay. And then the mechanistic reasons which is like, okay, so that's why evolution pressured for things to live longer, but what

actually changed to make them live longer? And there are a bunch of things that seem to change to make things live longer, but they're all weirdly interconnected. And if you just change one thing, you end up with a bunch of weird, bad side effects. So if you say, oh, they have more of this enzyme, so give people more of that enzyme. And it's like, oh, well, now their telomeres are staying longer for longer, but also they get way more cancer. Is there also a metabolic component too?

Yeah. Because I feel like there's those really slow living sharks. Those slow sharks, those greenland sharks. Turtles are slow. People talk about the greenland sharks maybe live long, and the coldness of the ocean has something to do with it. Right. Well, they're slow, it's cold.

They're refrigerated. Yeah. And that seems to have something to do with metabolism and just like the more metabolism there is god those greenland sharks are cool are in our sharks episode We talked about greenland sharks on tangents and how they how they hunt which is that don't they can how they can eat I won't spoil it. I'll just tell you they eat seals But they never travel more than like one mile per hour So how do they do it listen to to SciShow dance and find out. And now everyone, it's time for the all-important news from

Mars and AFC Wimbledon. I've heard that Sarah actually went and got AFC Wimbledon news because you're not busy. Funny, plenty of free time. Got so much time. But in news from Mars, I will tell you more about the Mars 2020 rover, which is getting ready to make its journey. So it's going through some initial tests, getting ready for launch. They launch, not launch. At the end of August, engineers took the rover and spun it around really fast, but not to test gravity, which is what my first thought was, but to find its center of gravity.

Oh, cool. Like, put it at the outside of a centrifuge. They just like put it here and they spun it around. They didn't know. They could probably model it pretty accurately, but you can't model it as accurately as real life. So they spun it around to find its center of gravity, which is very important for how you're going to position it inside of its spacecraft and also while doing like its descent calculations to make sure everything goes according to plan. One of the engineers at JPL compared the process to how you balance a new tire when you rotate it back and forth to figure out how the tire is balanced and you put weights on the tire

rim to get the balance right for your car. In this case, instead of a tire, it's a 2,300 pound Mars rover and the engineers apply to nine tungsten weights for a total of 44 pounds to get the center of gravity just right. Wow, that's cool. Spin that boy and then take him to Mars with his little quadcopter. So it's getting to Mars in 2020. So launching in 2020. I think it's launching in 2020 and getting to Mars.

Oh, it's doing both. But I don't know. It may get to Mars in 2021, but it's definitely launching in 2021. Okay. Okay. I literally googled AFC Wimbledon and then found something that was less than two days old. Hey, that's not fair. Apparently, they're bad.

Yeah. In it. I didn't know this. The people of this company just talk about AFC Wimbledon as a known quantity and John talks about it as a known quantity, but I didn't know that they were actually like bad. They're not all like they're not. It's not that they're bad. They're in a tough fleet. They're, it's not that they're bad.

They're in a tough leak. They're in a harder leak than they used to. So they were very good in their previous leak and then they moved up to the hard leak. And now they are at the bottom. I guess I say this and people are gonna come at me. I was also a bad at athlete. But they're good at athlete.

Yeah, but they're good. Okay, so they're better than me. I apologize to A.C. Wimbledon. Oh no, you guys, they're doing very badly. They're doing very badly, but they were good. Okay, so they're better than me. I apologize to you. See, little Give it all. They're doing very badly. They're doing very badly, but they were just one. They did they won their first victory The other 11 games of this season were lost or tied. Uh-huh. You would not be a good sports comedy I can do this sports intro new sound, but anyway So much negative. What that was.

Yeah. And sports dogs. Sports dogs. Sports dogs. It was very. Yeah. This team is so bad. Go team.

OK, I can do it more positively, if no one wants it. Yeah, it's fine. They have to win more than is great. They're trying their best this season. And after a long stretch of not that great, they won. They had a strong first half. It was 3-0. And it was a nerve-wracking second half, apparently,

because the other team scored two. Oh. But they still won. Three, two. Do they have a chance? It's not looking good. It's not looking good. They're below the dotted line, which I assume is the relegated line.

But they're only one below the dotted line. They're 21. Okay. The scarier thing, though, is that South End, who started the season at negative 12 points is now up to four. So they're going to get out of that zone. So they started at a negative because of something bad happened. They're like, panellized.

Yeah. I love that. Sports accountability. They're probably gonna move out of their allegations zone and then AFC one will be deeper in there. Oof, oof. Or I think. They're gonna pull it out.

Or they're gonna keep going. Yeah, this could be the start. Yeah, I mean the team that they beat is one of the worst teams in the league. Okay. So there are only two stops things ahead of them. Well, that means they could be Tran Mir, they could be Bolton. They could.

According to this thing. Bolton also started with negative 12 points. Ooh, that's looking good. That's good. This is an underdog. Just like Stefan could rise above us and hang bucks. Yeah, but he probably won. Oh.

Now who's being negative? Who's number one on the list? Ipswitchtown. I'm Ipswitchtown, baby. They got four green check marks in the last five. I have five green check marks in the last four. Whoa. Yeah, I got a bonus one.

That's the same very fair at all. We need to not have him be in charge of the points. All right, guys, thanks for making a podcast with me. Thank you. It was very fun. Well, that's what a good time. If you want to hear more from us, we're available at SciShow Tangents, which you could just search for on your podcast app.

It's probably at the bottom of the thing under your hand, Gjohn, it says they also subscribe to SciShow Tangents. If you go onto the description, and I choose those. Maybe that would work. Yeah, I have no idea. I think it would.

During a Gjohn is a co-production of Complexly and WNYC Studios, this podcast is edited by Joseph Tune a Mettish who's also sitting in the room this time. He got to be our peanut gallery, he laughed at jokes. Very encouraging. And it's produced by Rosie on Halsey Rollhassen, Sheridan Gibson. Our head of community and communications is Victoria Bonjorno, the music you're hearing now, and at the beginning of the podcast is by the great Gunnarola, and as they say in

our hometown, don't forget to be awesome. [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ But one more thing. Mmm. You can ship coconuts on the mail. Is that legal? Yes. I'm gonna keep saying that fact. I'm gonna keep editing it out of episodes.

Oh! Ha! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha